The House of Commons resumed its first full day of “normal” operations yesterday, if you consider the abomination of hybrid sittings to be normal. While the topic of the day was the Bloc’s sub-amendment to the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne (because you don’t actually amend the Speech itself), we also saw the government’s first piece of legislation tabled, which lays out some of the post-CERB recovery benefits, particularly the creation of the new benefit for those who don’t qualify for EI.

The headline figure there is that the Liberals have decided to keep the benefit levels around $500 per week or $2000 per month, as it was under CERB, rather than the plan that they initially floated which was to cap it at $400/week, likely in response to demands that they don’t allow it to become a disincentive to finding work (which is really indicative of a problem in this country where wages are too low to attract workers). It also provides the 10-day sick leave benefit and amends the Canada Labour Code so that it’s accessible to federally-regulated employers, though provinces will still need to amend their own labour laws to accommodate it.

All of this means is that the demands that Jagmeet Singh was making for him to “consider” supporting the Throne Speech are essentially met, and he can start declaring victory and patting himself on the back for the onerous task of pushing on an open door. I mean, I rather suspect that the Liberals kept the levels at $500/week of their own accord once it became clear that we are now in the second wave and that further lockdowns, either province-wide or more targeted, are far more likely than they were before. But this particular detail won’t matter to Singh and his followers. Instead, they will insist that it was their pressure that made the Liberals cave, and the can consider themselves heroes – but Trudeau’s government will survive another day.

Good reads:

• Chrystia Freeland says the government isn’t going to pressure regulators to fast-track approvals of rapid tests, because they want to ensure independence.
• It appears that the government plans to subsidize airlines to get regional and more remote domestic destinations back in service.
• Economists, including Lindsay Tedds, explain why automatic income tax filing is something that should already happen in Canada.
• Here is a look at the government’s pledge to reign in the big web giants, though the plans appear to be missing key elements.
• The head of the Canadian Army released orders to report racist incidents, and that anyone who fails to comply will be considered complicit.
• Some more details around the Nova Scotia mass shooting were released, in how at least one RCMP officer was ambushed by the shooter.
• Among chief public health officer, women are receiving more harassment and threads than their male counterparts. Look surprised, everyone!
• The Green Party leadership hopeful who was booted from the race was un-expelled after it was pointed out that Elizabeth May did the same thing she was accused of.
• Another Green leadership hopeful plans to contest the Toronto Center by-election.
• Chris Selley enumerates the ways in which the Throne Speech was unnecessary.
• Heather Scoffield looks over the Liberals’ updated early learning and childcare commitments, and how they hope that this time will be different.
• Susan Delacourt goes through Samara Canada’s latest report on how MPs have been dealing with the pandemic.

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